Materials Development in Language Teaching2 Hardback Frontmatter PDF

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978-0-521-76285-4 - Materials Development in Language Teaching, Second Edition

Edited by Brian Tomlinson
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Materials Development in Language Teaching
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CAMBRIDGE LANGUAGE TEACHING LIBR ARY

A series covering central issues in language teaching and learning,
by authors who have expert knowledge in their field.
For a complete list of titles please visit: www.cambridge.org/elt/cltl
A selection of recent titles in this series
Materials Development in Language Teaching
(Second Edition)
Testing for Language Teachers

(Second Edition)
Arthur Hughes
Values, Philosophies, and Beliefs in TESOL

Making a Statement
Motivational Strategies in the Language

Classroom
Graham Crookes
Zoltn Drnyei
Listening in the Language Classroom
The Dynamics of the Language Classroom
John Field
Ian Tudor
Lessons from Good Language Learners
Using Surveys in Language Programs
Edited by Carol Griffiths
James Dean Brown
Teacher Language Awareness
Approaches and Methods in Language

Teaching (Second Edition)
Stephen Andrews
Language Teacher Supervision

A Case-Based Approach
Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers
Kathleen M. Bailey
Lynne Cameron
Conversation
From Description to Pedagogy
Classroom Decision Making

Negotiation and Process Syllabuses in Practice
Scott Thornbury and Diana Slade
Michael P. Breen and Andrew Littlejohn
The Experience of Language Teaching
Establishing Self-Access
From Theory to Practice
Rose Senior
Learners Stories
Difference and Diversity in Language Learning
Teaching Languages to Young Learners
David Gardner and Lindsay Miller
Edited by Phil Benson and David Nunan
Collaborative Action Research for English

Language Teachers
Task-Based Language Teaching
Anne Burns
David Nunan
Affect in Language Learning
Rules, Patterns and Words

Grammar and Lexis in English Language
Teaching
Edited by Jane Arnold
Dave Willis
Developments in English for Specific

Purposes
A Multi-Disciplinary Approach
Language Learning in Distance Education
Tony Dudley-Evans and Maggie Jo St John
Cynthia White
Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom
Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective

Approaches through Drama and Ethnography
Zoltn Drnyei and Tim Murphey
Edited by Michael Byram and Michael Fleming
www.cambridge.org

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Materials Development
in Language Teaching
Second Edition
Edited by
Brian Tomlinson
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cambridge university press

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Cambridge University Press 1998, 2011
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1998
Second edition 2011
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Materials development in language teaching / edited by Brian Tomlinson. 2nd ed.
p. cm. (Cambridge language teaching library)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-521-15704-9
1. Language and languages Study and teaching. 2. Teaching Aids and devices.
I. Tomlinson, Brian. II. Title. III. Series.
P53.15.M38 2010
418.0071dc22
2010035789
ISBN 978-0-521-15704-9 Paperback
ISBN 978-0-521-76285-4 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in
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Contents
Preface
vii
BRIAN TOMLINSON
Glossary of basic terms for materials development in language

teaching
ix
BRIAN TOMLINSON
Acknowledgements
1
Introduction: principles and procedures of materials

development
xix
1
BRIAN TOMLINSON
Part A Data collection and materials development

2
Using corpora in the language classroom
Concordances in the classroom without a computer:

assembling and exploiting concordances of common words
35
RANDI REPPEN
51
JANE WILLIS
Telling tails: grammar, the spoken language and materials

development
RONALD CARTER, REBECCA HUGHES AND MICHAEL MCCARTHY
Comments on Part A
78
101
BRIAN TOMLINSON
Part B The process of materials writing

5
A framework for materials writing
Writing course materials for the world: a great compromise
How writers write: testimony from authors
107
DAVID JOLLY AND ROD BOLITHO
135
JAN BELL AND ROGER GOWER
151
PHILIP PROWSE
Comments on Part B
174
BRIAN TOMLINSON
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Contents
Part C The process of materials evaluation
8 The analysis of language teaching materials: inside
the Trojan Horse
179
ANDREW LITTLEJOHN
9 Macro- and micro-evaluations of task-based teaching
212
ROD ELLIS
10 What do teachers really want from coursebooks?
236
HITOMI MASUHARA
11 The process of evaluation: a publishers view
267
FRANCES AMRANI
Comments on Part C
296
BRIAN TOMLINSON
Part D The electronic delivery of materials

12 Developing language-learning materials with technology
303
GARY MOTTERAM
13 New technologies to support language learning
328
LISA KERVIN AND BEVERLY DEREWIANKA
Comments on Part D
352
BRIAN TOMLINSON
Part E Ideas for materials development

14 Seeing what they mean: helping L2 readers to visualise
357
BRIAN TOMLINSON
15 Squaring the circle reconciling materials as constraint

with materials as empowerment
379
ALAN MALEY
16 Lozanov and the teaching text
403
GRETHE HOOPER HANSEN
17 Access-self materials
414
BRIAN TOMLINSON
Comments on Part E
433
BRIAN TOMLINSON
Conclusions
437
BRIAN TOMLINSON
Recommended reading
Index
443
445
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Preface
Brian Tomlinson
This is a book of original chapters on current issues in materials development written by well-known contributors to the fields of applied linguistics and TEFL, most of whom have made presentations at MATSDA
conferences.
MATSDA (The Materials Development Association) is an international materials development association founded in 1993 by Brian
Tomlinson to contribute to the development of quality materials for
learners of second and foreign languages. It aims to bring together teachers, researchers, materials writers and publishers in a joint endeavour
to stimulate and support principled research, innovation and development. It does this by holding conferences, running workshops, providing consultants, publishing a journal (Folio) and stimulating books like
this one.
For further information about MATSDA and for application
forms for membership contact Brian Tomlinson, President of MATSDA,
brianjohntomlinson@gmail.com, or go to the MATSDA website at
www.matsda.org.uk. The main aim of this book is to further the work
of MATSDA in providing information, ideas and stimulus which will
facilitate the application of current thinking and research to the practical realities of developing and exploiting classroom materials. It also
aims to stimulate further experimentation and innovation and thus to
contribute to the continuing development of quality materials.
More and more applied linguistics and teacher development courses
are including components on materials development (there are even
MA courses focusing on L2 materials development at the International
Graduate School of English in Seoul and at Leeds Metropolitan
University), and more and more presentations at ELT conferences are
focusing on issues related to the writing and exploitation of materials.
And yet until 1998 few books had been published which investigated
these issues. Materials Development for Language Teaching filled this
gap by providing an opportunity for researchers, teachers, writers and
publishers to communicate their informed views and suggestions to an
audience seeking to gain new insights into the principles and procedures which were informing the current writing and exploitation of L2
materials. This revised edition of Materials Development for Language
Teaching aims to retain the insights of the 1998 edition whilst adding
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Preface
new ideas and information related to developments since its initial publication. It includes five new chapters, two extra chapters on making
use of new technologies in materials development and three replacement chapters on the pre-use evaluation of materials by publishers, on
making use of corpora in published materials and on the post-use evaluation of tasks. The other chapters are revised and updated versions of
chapters published in the 1998 edition.
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Glossary of basic terms for materials

development in language teaching
Brian Tomlinson
The following terms are used frequently in this book. Unless they are
differently defined by the author(s) of the chapter, they are used with
the meanings given below.
Authentic task (or real world task)

A task which involves learners in using language in a way that replicates its use in the real world outside the language classroom. Filling
in blanks, changing verbs from the simple past to the simple present
and completing substitution tables are, therefore, not authentic tasks.
Examples of authentic tasks would be answering a letter addressed to
the learner, arguing a particular point of view and comparing various
holiday brochures in order to decide where to go for a holiday.
See pedagogic task.
Authentic text
A text which is not written or spoken for language-teaching purposes.
A newspaper article, a rock song, a novel, a radio interview, instructions on how to play a game and a traditional fairy story are examples
of authentic texts. A story written to exemplify the use of reported
speech, a dialogue scripted to exemplify ways of inviting and a linguistically simplified version of a novel would not be authentic texts.
See simplified texts; text.
CLIL
Content and Language Integrated Learning an approach in which students acquire a second or foreign language whilst focusing on learning
new content knowledge and skills (e.g. about science, about composing
music, about playing football).
See experiential learning.
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Glossary of basic terms
Communicative approaches
Approaches to language teaching which aim to help learners to develop
communicative competence (i.e. the ability to use the language effectively for communication). A weak communicative approach includes
overt teaching of language forms and functions in order to help learners to develop the ability to use them for communication. A strong
communicative approach relies on providing learners with experience
of using language as the main means of learning to use the language.
In such an approach learners, for example, talk to learn rather than
learn to talk.
Communicative competence
The ability to use the language effectively for communication. Gaining
such competence involves acquiring both sociolinguistic and linguistic
knowledge and skills (or, in other words, developing the ability to use
the language fluently, accurately, appropriately and effectively).
Concordances (or concordance lines)

A list of authentic samples of language use each containing the same
key word or phrase, for example:
The bus driver still didnt have any change so he made me wait.
I really dont mind which one. Any newspaper will do.
I just know what they are saying. Any teacher will tell you that its
Concordances are usually generated electronically from a corpus.

See authentic text; corpus.
Corpus
A bank of authentic texts collected in order to find out how language
is actually used. Often a corpus is restricted to a particular type of
language use, for example, a corpus of newspaper English, a corpus of
legal documents or a corpus of informal spoken English, and it is usually stored and retrieved from electronically.
See text.
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Coursebook
A textbook which provides the core materials for a language-learning course. It aims to provide as much as possible in one book and
is designed so that it could serve as the only book which the learners
necessarily use during a course. Such a book usually includes work on
grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functions and the skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
See supplementary materials.
Discovery activity
An activity which involves learners in investing energy and attention in
order to discover something about the language for themselves. Getting
learners to work out the rules of direct speech from examples, asking
learners to investigate when and why a character uses the modal must
in a story and getting learners to notice and explain the use of ellipsis in
a recorded conversation would be examples of discovery activities.
ELF
English as a lingua franca the English used by non-native speakers
or the use of English by non-native speakers to achieve communication
with each other. Some applied linguists consider ELF to be a variety of
English whereas others consider it to be a way of using English.
See World English.
Experiential learning
Referring to ways of learning language through experiencing it in use
rather than through focusing conscious attention on language items.
Reading a novel, listening to a song and taking part in a project are
experiential ways of learning language.
Foreign language
A language which is not normally used for communication in a particular society. Thus English is a foreign language in France and Spanish is
a foreign language in Germany.
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Global coursebook
A coursebook which is not written for learners from a particular culture or country but which is intended for use by any class of learners in
the specified level and age group anywhere in the world.
Language awareness approaches

Approaches to teaching language which emphasise the value of helping
learners to focus attention on features of language in use. Most proponents of language awareness approaches emphasise the importance of
learners gradually developing their own awareness of how the language
is used through discoveries which they make for themselves.
See discovery activity.
Language data
Instances of language use which are used to provide information about
how the language is used. Thus a corpus can be said to be made up of
language data.
See corpus.
Language practice
Activities which involve repetition of the same language point or skill in
an environment which is controlled by the framework of the activity. The
purpose for language production and the language to be produced are
usually predetermined by the task or the teacher. The intention is not to
use the language for communication but to strengthen, through successful
repetition, the ability to manipulate a particular language form or function. Thus, getting all the students in a class, who already know each other,
repeatedly to ask each other their names would be a practice activity.
See language use.
Language use
Activities which involve the production of language in order to communicate. The purpose of the activity might be predetermined but the
language which is used is determined by the learners. Thus, getting a
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new class of learners to walk around and introduce themselves to each
other would be a language use activity; and so would getting them to
complete a story for which they have been given the beginning.
See language practice.
Learning styles
The way(s) that particular learners prefer to learn. Some language
learners have a preference for hearing the language (auditory learners),
some for seeing it written down (visual learners), some for learning
it in discrete bits (analytic learners), some for experiencing it in large
chunks (global or holistic or experiential learners), and many prefer to
do something physical whilst experiencing the language (kinaesthetic
learners). Learning styles are variable and people often have different
preferences in different learning contexts.
Lexical approaches
These are approaches which focus on the use of vocabulary and especially
on the choices available to users of English when wanting to communicate particular meanings in particular contexts for particular purposes.
Lexical chunks
These are phrases in which a group of words are used with only one
meaning (e.g. have no option but). They can be fi xed terms in which
the words never change (e.g. at the end of the day) or they can be routines in which one of the elements can change (e.g. All the best for the
future/next week/exam/interview, etc.).
L2
A term used to refer to both foreign and second languages.
See foreign language; second language.
Materials
Anything which is used to help language learners to learn. Materials
can be in the form, for example, of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette,
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a CD-ROM, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph
written on a whiteboard: anything which presents or informs about the
language being learned.
Materials adaptation
Making changes to materials in order to improve them or to make them
more suitable for a particular type of learner. Adaptation can include
reducing, adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing. Most teachers adapt materials every time they use a textbook in order to maximise
the value of the book for their particular learners.
Materials evaluation
The systematic appraisal of the value of materials in relation to their
objectives and to the objectives of the learners using them. Evaluation
can be pre-use and therefore focused on predictions of potential value.
It can be whilst-use and therefore focused on awareness and description
of what the learners are actually doing whilst the materials are being
used. And it can also be post-use and therefore focused on evaluation
of what happened as a result of using the materials.
Multimedia materials
Materials which make use of a number of different media. Often
they are available on a CD-ROM which makes use of print, graphics,
video and sound. Usually such materials are interactive and enable the
learner to receive feedback on the written or spoken language that they
produce.
New technologies
A term used to refer to recently developed electronic means of delivering language-learning materials or of facilitating electronic communication between learners. It includes the Internet, as a resource as well as
emails, YouTube, chat rooms, blogs, Facebook, video conferencing and
mobile phone technology.
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Pedagogic task
A task which does not replicate a real world task but which is designed
to facilitate the learning of language or of skills which would be useful
in a real world task. Completing one half of a dialogue, filling in the
blanks in a story and working out the meaning of ten nonsense words
from clues in a text would be examples of pedagogic tasks. Pedagogic
tasks can, however, require the use of real world skills. A task requiring
a group to reproduce a diagram which only one member of the group
has seen, for example, involves the use of visualisation, giving precise
instructions and asking for clarification. It is arguable that such tasks,
despite not being real world tasks, are in fact authentic.
PPP
An approach to teaching language items which follows a sequence of
presentation of the item, practice of the item and then production of
the item. This is the approach still currently followed by most commercially produced coursebooks. Some applied linguists prefer, however,
an experiential PPP approach in which production comes before presentation and practice.
See language practice; SLA ; language use.
Second language
The term is used to refer to a language which is not a mother tongue but
which is used for certain communicative functions in a society. Thus,
English is a second language in Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Singapore, and
French is a second language in Senegal, Cameroon and Tahiti.
See foreign language.
Self-access materials
Materials designed for learners to use independently (i.e. on their own
without access to a teacher or a classroom). They are normally used
by the learner at home, in a library or in a self-study centre and can be
paper-based or electronic.
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Simplied texts
These are texts which have been made simpler so as to make it easier
for learners to read them. The usual principles of simplification involve
reduction in length of the text, shortening of sentences, omission or
replacement of difficult words or structures, omission of qualifying
clauses and omission of non-essential detail. Some applied linguists
prefer to simplify texts by adding examples, by using repetition and
paraphrase and by increasing redundant information. In other words,
by lengthening rather than shortening the text, by elaboration rather
than reduction.
SLA
This is an abbreviation for Second Language Acquisition and is normally used to refer to research and theory related to the learning of
second and foreign languages.
Supplementary materials
Materials designed to be used in addition to the core materials of a
course. They are usually related to the development of the skills of
reading, writing, listening or speaking rather than to the learning of
language items, but also include dictionaries, grammar books and
workbooks.
See coursebook.
Tasks
These are activities in which the learners are asked to use the target
language in order to achieve a particular outcome within a particular
context (e.g. solving a problem; planning a meeting; selecting candidates for an interview).
Task-based approaches
This refers to materials or courses which are designed around a series of
authentic tasks which give the learners experience of using the language
in ways in which it is used in the real world outside the classroom.
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They usually have no pre-determined language syllabus and the aim is
for learners to learn from the tasks the language that they need for successful participation in them. Examples of such tasks would be working
out the itinerary of a journey from a timetable, completing a passport
application form, ordering a product from a catalogue and giving directions to the post office.
See authentic task.
Text
Any extended sample of a language presented to learners of that language. A text can be written or spoken and could be, for example, a
poem, a newspaper article, a passage about pollution, a song, a film,
a live conversation, an extract from a novel or play, a passage written
to exemplify the use of the past perfect, a recorded telephone conversation, a scripted dialogue or a speech by a politician.
Text-based approaches
Approaches in which the starting point is a text rather than a teaching
point. The learners fi rst of all experience and respond to the text before
focusing attention on salient language or discourse features of it.
See experiential learning.
Workbook
A book which contains extra practice activities for learners to work
on in their own time. Usually the book is designed so that learners can
write in it and often there is an answer key provided in the back of the
book to give feedback to the learners.
World English
A variety of English which is used for international communication.
See ELF.
For defi nitions of other terms frequently used in EFL and applied linguistics see:
Crystal, D. 1985. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, 2nd edn.
Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
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Davies, A. 2005. A Glossary of Applied Linguistics. Edinburgh: University of
Edinburgh Press.
Ellis, R. 1994. Glossary. In The Study of Second Language Acquisition.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 692729.
Johnson, K. and H. Johnson, H. 1999. The Encyclopedic Dictionary of
Applied Linguistics: A Handbook for Language Teaching. Oxford: WileyBlackwell.
Richards, J. and R. Schmidt, H. Platt and M. Schmidt. 2010. Longman
Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics, 4th edn.
Harlow: Longman.
Tomlinson, B. 1984. A glossary of basic EFL terms. In A. Cunningsworth,
Evaluating and Selecting EFL Teaching Materials. London: Heinemann,
pp. 80102.
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Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Jane Walsh of Cambridge University Press

for her insights, suggestions and support, and to Freda Mishan, Jaya
Mukundan and Ivor Timmis for their very helpful reviews of the draft
version of the book.
The authors and publishers acknowledge the following sources of
copyright material and are grateful for the permissions granted. While
every effort has been made, it has not always been possible to identify
the sources of all the material used, or to trace all copyright holders. If
any omissions are brought to our notice, we will be happy to include the
appropriate acknowledgements on reprinting.
p. 39, fig. 2, Davies, Mark. (2008-) The Corpus of Contemporary
American English (COCA): 410+ million words, 1990-present. Available
online at http://www.americancorpus.org; pp. 4243, figs. 2.3, 2.4,
Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers. (2009). Ann Arbor, MI:
The Regents of the University of Michigan; p. 53, fig 3.1, Collins Cobuild
data sheets Concordance for any, 1986. Collins Cobuild; p. 79. Nunan,
D. and Lockwood, J. 1991. The Australian English Course. Cambridge
University Press; pp. 7980, Burns, A. Joyce, H. and Gollin, S. 1996.
I see what you mean. Using Spoken Discourse in The Classroom:
A Handbook for Teachers. NCELTR, Macquarie University (Sydney);
pp. 192195, Littlejohn, A. and Hicks, D. 2008. Primary Colours
Pupils Book 5. Cambridge University Press; pp. 284289, Goodey and
Goodey. 2005. Messages. Cambridge University Press; p. 307, fig. 12.2
Oxford University Press 2008; p. 333, fig. 13.2, screenshot reproduced with permission; p. 333, fig. 13.3, Screenshot reproduced courtesy of Languagelab.com; p. 399400, McGinley, P. The Adversary
from Times Three. Martin Secker & Warburg; p. 400, Thomas, R. S.
1963 Sorry from The Bread of Truth HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.;
p. 401, Leon Leszek Szkutnik, He Never Sent me Flowers. (Warsaw);
pp. 423424, Gordimer, N. 1991. My Sons Story. Reproduced with
permission of A P Watt Ltd on behalf of Felix Licensing BV.
The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs
for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at
the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility
for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live
or that the content is or will remain appropriate.
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978-0-521-76285-4 - Materials Development in Language Teaching, Second Edition